Destructive Ignorant Students Undermine the University of Washington

In past blogs, I have described the disturbing situation on the University of Washington campus, with loud demonstrations calling for the eradication of Israel, the killing of Jews through Intifada, and support for the October 7 Hamas barbaric acts of rape, beheadings, and murder.

But it has gotten worse, much worse.

On Thursday, students stormed the University's administration building and physically took over the office of University of Washington president, Ana Mari Cauce.  

Several dozen student Hamas supporters took over Ana Mari Cauce's office on Thursday.  Note the Palestinian flag they hung outside a window.

A few days before this, the same students defaced many locations around campus with antisemitic and anti-Israel messages, including Nazi swastikas (see below).

Strangely, most of the local major media did not cover any of it.

Their "demands" included ending all UW programs with Israel, terminating joint UW efforts with Boeing, UW divesting from Israel, and ending the "repression" of pro-Palestinian students by the UW.

 

Thursday night shows how extreme the situation has become.

The UW Jewish community had long held a menorah-lighting ceremony on Red Square, the center of the University of Washington campus.   This is an important community event and President Cauce helped light the menorah one year.

But radical anti-Israel students wanted to undermine the event.  So they scheduled their takeover of the UW Administration Building on the first night of Chanukah, with amplified sound and demonstrations in Red Square.  The Chanukah celebration had to be moved several hundred feet away to the Arts and Sciences quad.

I was there and it was surreal.

In front of me, there was a joyous celebration of the events of 164 BC, when Jews were attacked by violent outsiders but were able to fight their way back to Jerusalem to light the holy flames at the Temple (see below).  Sounds a bit familiar doesn't it?

And in the background, one could hear the Hamas supporters calling Israelis colonialists and recent invaders.  Calls for Intifada and destruction of Israel.  It is strange to suggest that people who have been in Israel for 3000 years are "colonialists."  

The students supporting Hamas would not leave President Cauce's office after being asked several times.  Finally, the Seattle police moved in and physically hauled them outside. As this happened, the activists called the police several vile names I will not repeat here.  Surprisingly, the students were not all arrested.

While all this was going on, an individual was shot in the face two blocks away.

This situation has been getting worse and worse during the past few weeks, as Hamas supporters have marched around campus with amplified sound, sometimes into buildings, being highly disruptive to instruction and research.  I had to leave my office more than once to work.

Jewish students, staff, and faculty are scared and tense, something I have confirmed talking to several of them.  

This situation should never have gotten out of hand like this. 

Unfortunately, it reflects the same kind of academic tolerance of extremism and antisemitism that has been noted on other campuses, including MIT, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania.

For example, an official UW student organization (UW-SUPER) organized the violent takeover of Ana Mari's office and organized disruptive rallies (see below).  

UW-SUPER organized the takeover of President Ana Mari's office

And UW-Super celebrated the barbaric Hamas murders (see below, note the paraglider bringing in the murders, rapists, and child killers)

Their student organizational status should have been terminated a long time ago, but the UW administration has not acted. 

Why is UW-SUPER still a registered UW student organization?

Recently, the UW administration put pressure on the Jewish Studies program to refrain from holding public lectures and events so as not to motivate SUPER and their intolerant allies.  Thus, the victims are being told to keep quiet and keep their heads down.  Dr. Brenda Goldman, Interim Director of the Jewish Studies program, called this out and threatened to quit.

The UW administration should have made it clear to the Hamas supporters that loud, disruptive demonstrations calling for Jewish genocide and the destruction of Israel would not be tolerated.

Student learning is being disrupted.

But the UW administration has done little and Hamas supporters have taken this as a sign they can amplify their hateful messaging, campus disruption, and even take over the central administrative building on campus.  

But is worse than that.  

The UW has a HUGE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy that costs about 20 million a year.  These diversity deans and their minions are constantly reminding UW students, faculty, and staff of the "violence" of using the wrong pronouns and other social justice affronts.  But as far as I can tell, NOT A SINGLE UW DEI staff member has spoken publicly about the direct threats against Jews and Israelis by the Hamas supporters on campus.

Worse than that, some UW DEI staff are publicly (and with UW/State resources) actively supporting the student Hamas activists.  For example, the UW Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion (OSDI) emailed to students the following message, including:

“We firmly support the cause of Palestinians and their fight for freedom from the unlawful and oppressive settler colonial apartheid state. 

The pro-Hamas students are violating the UW Code of Conduct, with their behavior clearly being discriminatory harassment.

Here is some of the actual language: 

Discriminatory harassment.

Discriminatory harassment includes verbal, physical, electronic, or other conduct based on an individual's race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship,...

The law states that harassment is occurring when "such conduct creates a hostile environment, which is created when the conduct is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it unreasonably interferes with an individual's academic or work performance, ability to participate in or benefit from the university's programs..."

The UW administration is clearly failing UW students, staff, and faculty.  

The pro-Hamas students have been so emboldened by the University's lack of enforcement of basic civility that they are now attacking university administrative facilities.

I hate to imagine what they will do next.  It is time for President Ana Mari Cauce and her administration to act based on morality, law, and basic human decency.